10 Wildest and Weirdest Car Restorations from Monterey Weekend

Sure, the Monterey weekend car shows are peppered with eye candy like $200,000 Porsche 911s, $500,000 Ferraris and million-dollar Bugattis. How pedestrian. For a real taste of Pebble Beach, it's time to check out truly rare and truly strange. These are the one-off concept cars—the limited edition of an already limited edition—and the oddities that have never been out in public before. These ten bizarre (and maybe even beautiful) cars caught our eye.

Le Monstre

Le Monstre

Believe it or not, this is a Cadillac. In fact, underneath that rather homely bodywork is a standard 1950 Series 61 frame and powertrain, with the exception of a five-carb setup on the 331 cid V8. The car competed in Le Mans and was nicknamed "Le Monstre" for good reason. That bodywork helped it achieve a top speed of 130 mph—13 mph faster than the standard Series 61 Caddy.

1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster Concept

1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster Concept

Concept cars from the 1950s and 1960s reflected the jet-age assumption that in the future, we'd all be driving (or flying) cars with wings and fins. The 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster concept certainly packs all the right space age cues. Its powered by a 225 Slant Six engine. But that motor was tuned to 250 hp—impressive for its size.